Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s new novel, Two-Part Inventions reviewed in New York Times
Alison McCulloch reivews Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s new novel, Two-Part Inventions in the New York Times.
Good artists imitate, great artists steal. So said Pablo Picasso. Or was it T. S. Eliot? By this logic, the British pianist Joyce Hatto was surely great: after her death in 2006 it was discovered that scores of recordings attributed to her were actually stolen from other performers. It was Hatto’s story, according to Schwartz’s author’s note, that was the spark for this novel, which charts the belated rise and eventual exposure of Suzanne Stellman, a gifted pianist whose early career is hampered by crippling stage fright.
After reading Two-Part Invention, if you haven’t already, go back to Lynne Sharon Schwatz’s debut novel, Leaving Brooklyn, which Hawthorne presents with an introduction by Ursula Hegi and a preface by the author.